Bacterial Infections

Abstract

Bacterial infection of the lung has represented a serious health problem throughout medical history. Although briefly looked on with some complacency during the early antibiotic era, bacterial pneumonia has now resumed its deadly position in hospitalized patients.1,2 Factors that have contributed to this resurgence of disease include changes in human bacterial flora,3 the discovery of previously unrecognized organisms,4 and the widespread use of immunosuppressive therapy.5 Changes in the clinical spectrum of pneumonia have also resulted from alterations in the inherent virulence of certain microorganisms and from changes in human susceptibility to antimicrobial agents.